Six-month-old web site Codecademy claims you can learn programming through its online tutorials. The free modules on JavaScript are now available. The site also allows anyone to post their own programming courses. The site has good funding, but question is: can you really learn programming this way? One blogger enthuses that Codecademy's approach "looks like the future of learning to me," while another slams it saying "Seriously? Wow, bull**** badging and sh**ty pedagogy wins the day in ed-tech investing." What do you think?
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Member since:2011-01-28
l3v1,
"...The ones who might argue otherwise, well, those are the ones I wouldn't hire to better programming jobs. They are the code monkeys, and they are a dime a dozen."
Do you realize how pompous that attitude is? If anyone has a different opinion on the matter, it must be because they're unqualified? Wow...where does such prejudice come from?
I happen to disagree with you, computer science and programming can be learned in the pursuit of a degree or on the job or at home, it doesn't matter as long as one has a strong commitment and desire to continue expanding one's understanding. There isn't just one path to becoming an expert.
Just because you can't learn at home, it doesn't mean others cannot. You see what I did? It is insulting to be brushed off as unqualified just because of a brazen assumption.
Moving on..
"All the fuss in recent years about trying to commoditize and undervalue real programming skills is a somewhat disturbing trend, the results of which are quite easy to see with the rise of ridiculously crappy software flooding people from everywhere you turn."
I won't deny this, I see it every day and dammit it pisses me off. Clients push so strongly to reduce costs that they turn a blind eye to how it is affecting their products. I compete in an industry where there's so little regard for quality that it has become difficult to make serious use of the skills I most take pride in having.
Member since:2012-01-17
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Member since:
2005-07-06
I think, that looking back, I (actually that was a few of us kids) learned most of my basic coding knowledge by myself, before school or anything else. But, coding does not equal programming, and knowing programming languages does not equal programming knowledge and/or algorithm knowledge. Going further, basic algorithm knowledge does not equal knowing mathematical and numerical math knowledge, very necessary very frequently. And I could go further.
What I want to get to is, you can teach a programming language in a variety of ways, including online courses, but you can't teach how to code or program well in such a way. The ones who might argue otherwise, well, those are the ones I wouldn't hire to better programming jobs. They are the code monkeys, and they are a dime a dozen.
So what I think is, "the future of learning to program?" - no. It should be "learning programming languages" and be done with it.
All the fuss in recent years about trying to commoditize and undervalue real programming skills is a somewhat disturbing trend, the results of which are quite easy to see with the rise of ridiculously crappy software flooding people from everywhere you turn.